Video: Flow Frames in France -transfer

[La Chassagne]

Hello everyone,

We are situated in a rural area the middle of France and, this (early) spring, have acquired our first colony which we transferred into our home-made beehive which accommodates 6 Australian Flow Frames.

If you are interested, here is a short video about it. The video is in Dutch, with English subtitles:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRjS2WewC4E"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRjS2WewC4E[/ame]

Cheers!

 

[snelgrove]

Thanks for the video, your obviously new to Beekeeping, why smoke frames with bees on when they are out of the hive? Flow hive nice idea, not gonna work where I live

 

[Jimy Dee]

Absolutely thanks for the video. Make sure please to keep us updated with other videos just to see how good this flowhive really is. Best of luck with your hives.

 

[sugarbush]

Thanks for the video, your obviously new to Beekeeping, why smoke frames with bees on when they are out of the hive?

My thought also.


Experienced beeks don't smoke a hive entrance and drive the bees to the top prior to opening the top.

Don't move hives on a wheelbarrow with the frames perpendicular to the direction being transported as the angle can cause frames to shift and crush the queen. (If tipping a hive always tip it forward or back, never to a side)

Don't pull frames from the middle as it is a good way to roll the queen.

Don't place frames out of order in the new box as it shifts orientation of brood and food and causes the bees to spend needless effort reorganizing everything that just got re-arranged on them.

Other than all that, quality video work.

 

[La Chassagne]

Thanks for the replies and the advice!

I realised about the (mis)use of smoke as I saw back the footage while working on the video.

However, "Experienced beeks don't smoke a hive entrance and drive the bees to the top prior to opening the top", I was taught at our local bee-association to smoke a bit at the entrance, wait about a minute or so, then slightly open the top, couple of puffs of smoke there, and take off the top all the way. So, you do it the other way around? Or no smoke at the entrance at all?

The frames in our hives fit quite snugly without having much room to move side to side. This is because of metal holder strips on which they rest on the top and at the bottom they also slide into metal holders to prevent them from "swinging" too much. (B.t.w. we took care to make sure the frames were transferred in the same order).

@snelgrove - "not gonna work where I live". Judging from your profile picture, you'd indeed better not use flow frames, since rapeseed nectar produces too "solid" honey.

Thanks again!

 

[sugarbush]

Correct; no smoke at the entrance at all. The bees run from the smoke so if you puff it in the entrance they are going to move up in the hive. You can simply lift the lid a bit, puff smoke under it and that is all.

Essentially there is no reason to drive the bees up and then drive them back down again. You need to handle the top bars so you don't want a mess of bees up on them to begin with.

I hate those metal frame holders. But yes I now understand why you pulled from the middle. If avoidable always remove a side frame first as the queen is unlikely to be on a side frame, then slide the frames towards that open space to remove them.

 

[La Chassagne]

Cheers, Sugerbush, not smoking at the entrance does make sense. At the course I was told that smoking at the entrance is done to "calm down" the bees, and to make communication between bees less effective (so that the guard bees at the entrance won't unnecessarily "stir up" the rest, I suppose). But smoke is a stressor as well, of course...

Because there are frame holders neat the bottom, too, to be able to (sort of) slide, I have to lift the frames abut 10 cm or so. It does the job.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Because there are frame holders neat the bottom, too, to be able to (sort of) slide, I have to lift the frames abut 10 cm or so. It does the job.

Going to be real fun once the bees get into serious propolising mode.

 

[kazmcc]

Welcome to the forum! These are all things you learn as you go. You will decide what works best for you the more experience you get. Hope you enjoy your bees, and see you around the forum

 

[sugarbush]

At the course I was told that smoking at the entrance is done to "calm down" the bees, and to make communication between bees less effective (so that the guard bees at the entrance won't unnecessarily "stir up" the rest, I suppose).

You should not be approaching a hive from the front so the guards are not going to notice you anyway. A little smoke at the top is going to clear the bees for you as you open the hive up, and in theory, cover alarm pheromone to some extent.

 

[Erichalfbee]

While we are talking about Flow frames
I have seen another video where lots of burr comb was made on the top bars of the brood below. When the flow super was tilted up it's obvious there is a significant space below so in effect there is at least two bee spaces between the bottom of the super frames and the brood top bars. Have you found any problem along these lines?

 

[Motobiman]

I was told a light smoke at the front of the hive, not directly in the entrance and waiting a few minutes followed by another light smoke under the top and another short wait, is the best compromise option.

It seems to work OK on our teaching hives.

 

[La Chassagne]

You should not be approaching a hive from the front so the guards are not going to notice you anyway.

If you smoke the entrance, you do it from the side, of course.

lots of burr comb was made on the top bars of the brood below

I did a little check on the super containing the flow frames, yesterday, and found that indeed there was some burr comb. Don't know if it is a problem. I left it there, for now. Maybe I should have taken it away? I kind of get the idea that it might serve as a "bridge" towards the flow frames, because they have become rather active in the super, lately.

@Motobiman - that is exactly how I was taught.

 

[Millet]

I am new to this wonderful pastime also but i would change them castellation spacers in the brood box if it was my hive, when the bees get working they stick everything together with wax and propolis, that means the frames need sliding apart with the hive tool after the dummy board has been removed to free them and give you space to remove the frames without rolling the bees.
I only use the smoke when everything is getting put back together, just to clear the top frames to save squashing the bees.

 

[Motobiman]

My thinking is it does little good to smoke my girls to make them retreat unless they have somewhere to retreat to and it's very much a time of day and weather thing.

Middle of a warm sunny day (hahaha) when most flyers are out foraging and often I find little smoke, if any, is needed.